The New McCarthyism

Ever since 9/11, according to opinion polls, Republicans have worried
more about terrorism than have Democrats. Initially, this fear
translated into overwhelming support for military action abroad. But as
Republicans (like everyone else) have grown tired and embittered by
America’s wars, they have turned their anxiety inward, lured by the
same idea that attracted Palmer and the McCarthyites: that America
could guarantee its safety on the cheap by ferreting out the real
threat, which resides within.

They have found the new communism. It's called Islam. But I fear, unlike Peter, that they have not tired of wars, just counter-insurgencies, and will never support actual withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan ever, because it reveals "weakness" in the war they want to escalate rather than defuse, and to use for domestic purposes rather than to understand and win.

I also predict that a military attack on another Muslim country, Iran, will be the next outward expression of this new McCarthyism. And if Israel does it, it will be used by the neocon and Palinite right as a sign that Obama was too Muslim and too weak and too un-American to do it himself. The script is pretty obvious. What the neocons have to do first is kill off the peace process to pave the way for the Greater Israel Palin supports and believes in. Watch them do it.

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